Cosmopolitan Fantasy Worlds

[Water Bob]

Sometimes I wonder if the settings of most fantasy RPGs involve a world that is too well traveled. People seem to have no trouble striding a horse and hoofing it to the next town, or even further. I would think that long distance travel would be a serious subject, never taken lightly, always planned out. Because, Death is a constant companion on the road.

I'm not much of a historian. Just how cosmopolitan was the ancient real world, anyway?

Thoughts?

 

[Morrus]

You're correct. But an accurate medieval simulation would be boring as heck. Level 15 turnip farmer? That's why we play fantasy RPGs with unrealistic worlds, and magic, and dragons.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Magic Dragon Turnips?

 

[Lwaxy]

Around my birthplace in Germany, traveling was never too uncommon - maybe because a major Roman road was going past, and later another major road. There was a small castle overlooking the village (long in ruins now) and the lords and the capitals were never far away. Yes, people planned their travels very carefully - especially in our area because said castle, for a long time, belonged to a.. robber baron would probably be the best translation although it doesn't quite fit. For a short time, the ruler of the barony (I think, I keep getting confused with the names) lived there, too.

In any case, I expect adventurers to plan their travels carefully. And hey, there is an explanation why random encounters so seldom contain villagers, cattle drivers or similar trivial things

 

[saskganesh]

Most people didn't travel, but people who did, travelled a lot.


Pilgrims, crusaders, mercenaries, Marco Polo, sailors, Vikings, Kings with their courts that were always on the move, Basque and Breton fishermen, friars, missionaries, Muslim tourists like Ibn Battuta, merchants working the Italy/Champagne/Flanders circuit and so on. Adventurers fall into this broad group.

The middle ages were very cosmopolitan to certain strata. Just not so for the turnip farmer.

 

[pickin_grinnin]

I decided to play a realistic character in a D&D game once. He was a farmer, with no combat skills and no real knowledge of the world beyond the few miles surrounding his farm. Most of his skills were utterly useless in the campaign. Traveling was a completely new and confusing thing to him. He never really lost his naivete.

He turned out to be one of my favorite characters of all time. The other players had no idea how to react to him. He ignored magic items, weapons, etc., refused to fight, and spent a lot of time wandering around aimlessly. The DM did a good job of working with the character, though, much to the confusion and consternation of everyone else.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

Ancient Rome was pretty cosmopolitan. As were the trading cities of the Hadramawt (sp?), the empires along the Silk Road, Alexander intended for his empire to be and certainly there was a great deal of interaction between the successor kingdoms. And many, many more examples through history. Really it was only quiet little back waters, far off from anywhere that would have been out of the loop. Places like North Western Europe for instance.

As Saskganesh pointed out there were people who traveled a LOT as part of their lifestyle. Those who didn't need to travel for their lifestyle didn't travel at all. But that's not to say they would never meet travelers. A local market could be very cosmopolitan with merchants from near and far come to buy and sell. Here the local peasants would be able to meet and mingle and get the news from distant lands and meet foreigners and hear about new and exciting concepts. Etc. Strikes me as fairly cosmopolitan. Yes, there would be places far off the main trade routes that would get their foreign news and trendy new gadgets much more slowly and at 5th and 6th hand. They would be the definition of not cosmopolitan. As indeed they still are today. But there would always have been centres of cosmopolitan, er, activity. (activity is not the word, but you get it.)

So I don't have a problem with a fantasy world having globe trotting travelers. All for it in fact.

 

[GMMichael]

Sometimes I wonder if the settings of most fantasy RPGs involve a world that is too well traveled. People seem to have no trouble striding a horse and hoofing it to the next town, or even further. I would think that long distance travel would be a serious subject, never taken lightly, always planned out. Because, Death is a constant companion on the road.

Depends on your setting. My personal preference: travel should be something that requires prayer. It also depends on your character's wealth: if you hire a caravan, the other travelers can keep Death at bay for you. If you travel by yourself, well, Death can breathe down your neck.

Long trips are actually really good excuses for special adventures and side quests. And character development. The special adventures would include movement and weather as a key component. Side quests, well, we all know what those are. Plus, when your characters have a ton of time to...kill...the GM can write in some conversations that progress the plot and characters a bit.

Yes, people planned their travels very carefully - especially in our area because said castle, for a long time, belonged to a.. robber baron would probably be the best translation although it doesn't quite fit.

What's the word? I'm a German-speaker wannabe.

 

[Dungeoneer]

I'll second the idea that it all depends on the time and place: there was certainly trade throughout most of the medieval period and some parts of Europe would have been very well-traveled. But then of course at other times and places there was war and plague and and bandits and ruinous lords and a villager scarcely dared poke their head out of the door of their hut.

However it's probably very true that the average peasant was not very well-traveled, since a horse was a luxury that only nobles and the wealthy owned. Probably the nearest town within a day's walking distance was the extent of their horizons.

 

[WayneLigon]

Sometimes I wonder if the settings of most fantasy RPGs involve a world that is too well traveled. People seem to have no trouble striding a horse and hoofing it to the next town, or even further. I would think that long distance travel would be a serious subject, never taken lightly, always planned out. Because, Death is a constant companion on the road.

A lot more travel occurred than we've been led to think, especially before the rise of feudalism. A lot of people didn't travel but not because of fear or lack of curiosity - most of them were farmers of some sort and pre-industrial farming is a 24-hour job. There was lots of travel of the 1-2 day variety, to go from farm or hamlet to a trade center - delivering animals and produce to market, and to pick up thing for people back in town. Also, a lot of travel was water travel instead of road travel - it's vastly faster and safer, and allowed people to go long distances. Unlike most adventurers, most people don't use horses for travel - they walk, and then ride on a barge or boat to their destination.

Long distance travel certainly was planned out because you didn't know about bandits or wild animals or the weather, or who was a war with whom. People traveling long distances most often did so in groups, either as caravans or simply a long line of people walking together, maybe with a handful of hired toughs in case there is trouble.